What was the most memorable part of your degree?
Becoming acquainted with many professors of various specializations from media and critical theory, to post-colonialism, and cross-overs with a variety of disciplines, while developing an awareness of the socio-economic realities of a global city such as Toronto. As well as gaining memorable experiences as a teaching assistant while trying to share my interest and knowledge of what we can consider ‘architecture’. All of these aspects formed an indivisible whole that made my experience of U of T a very enjoyable one.

What inspired your thesis topic?
Before coming in Toronto, I had no idea that, after New York, Toronto was the North American city with the most high-rise buildings, many of them postwar concrete apartment buildings found in the suburbs. A consequence of their mismatched zoning and contemporary demographics, these living spaces are now in dire need of revitalization and targeted actions. As such, this was for me a very interesting topic as it was both specific to the Toronto area, and to a broader range of disciplinary issues. Building upon the inspiring work of Tower Renewal initiative and other international case studies, I was interested in expanding an existing body of knowledge by focusing on a grey zone, such as the space at the base of the towers, a common ground often left-over in these projects which could be a catalyst for a distinct approach to the problem.

What advice would you give to a new student?
University of Toronto is a big fruit; don’t be scared to take a bite! It is a great institution with many means and capacities to support good ideas and projects, do not be shy to apply to grants, awards, working positions, and ask for funding. While being an university student, you are in the best spot to initiate projects and gain meaningful experience that will propel you to where you want to be in the future.

What are your plans after graduation?
I'm ultimately interested in both architectural practice and research/teaching, I am right now taking a break from academia by gaining more practical experience here in Toronto. Who knows what will be my next step?

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Convocation for #UofTDaniels students was on June 14. This month we are featuring our graduates, including their work, their memories, and their advice for new students. Follow #DanielsGrad18 for more!

New infrastructure has the power to transform the nation. That's the inspiration behind the CanInfra Ideas Contest, which challenges university students, academics, professionals, think tanks, and others to develop new infrastructure ideas for the 21st century.

The winners of this year's competition were announced on May 30th, and a team that included recent Daniels Faculty HBA, Architectural Studies graduates Ji Song Sun and Hasnain Raza Akbar took third place, with an award of $10,000.

The team's submission, "Taking the High Road," proposes highway lanes that can wirelessly charge the batteries of electric vehicles while they are driving. This new infrastructure would help encourage the uptake of zero-emission vehicles on Canadian roads — one of the Government of Canada's goals. The team's design also includes rotating solar panels and wind turbines that would generate electricity from the sun and from wind turbulence created by the traffic.

"As an architectural designer, it was my great pleasure and honor to serve the team for the past several months by helping them visualize the ideas through 3D rhino models, renderings, diagrams, and physical models," said Sun, who participated in a number of architectural competitions throughout his undergraduate career will be joining the University of Calgary's Master of Architecture (Environmental Design) program this fall.

Akbar helped the team create cohesive visuals and focused on design elements of the highways as well as the over all infrastructure.

Other team members include, from U of T: Project Manager Jing Guo, who is currently pursuing a masters degree in applied science; Economic Consultant Benjamin Couillard, who holds a BA and MA in economics from the U of T; industrial engineering masters student Pavel Shmatnik, who led the group's research team, and life sciences graduate Thenvin Giridhar, who created animations. Aliyah Mohamed, a graduate of McMaster University, was the finance and feasibility lead; and Tashi Nanglo, who graduated from the University of Guelph, was the video director for the project.

Above: Team members for the project "Taking the High Road" pictured with Canada's Minister of Finance Bill Morneau

The CanInfra Ideas Contest was presented by The Boston Consulting Group in Canada and sponsored by Brookfield Asset Management, RBC, CIBC, Deloitte, Torys LLP, and media partner The Globe and Mail.

The winning team, "IceGrid: A Renewable Energy Microgrid for Nunavut," from Memorial University in St John's, proposed building "solar- and wind-powered micro power grids to replace dirty fuel-burning systems in rural communities. The IceGrid plan starts with a site in Iqaluit, Nunavut, and would scale to other rural communities across Canada's north."

For more information on the winning teams, visit the CanInfra Ideas Contest website.

What was the most enjoyable part of your degree?
Travelling to Sarasota to study the mid-century architecture of Paul Rudolph was definitely a highlight. I will also say working through the night at 230 college just deleting extraneous lines from a 'Make 2D' in Rhino was somehow very fun and rewarding.

What inspired your thesis topic?
For my thesis I was interested in creating a narrative – inspired by architecture that is represented rather than built, in mediums such as comic books; like Jim Lai's Citizens of No Place. I liked how you could make architecture that did not respond to physical constraints necessarily, allowing the focus to lie in social concerns and thought experiments. I really wanted to explore absurdity and science fiction.

Tell us more about your thesis!
The aim of this thesis is to use the genre of science fiction as a thought experiment for imagining the future of beachfront properties in Sarasota Florida. What would become of Florida’s vulnerable coast if storms were to increase in severity and frequency? If sea levels impede current living conditions? The affects of climate and natural disasters have always been very real for the less economically prosperous – but what would it take for increasing storm severity, and increasing sea levels to feel real to everyone?

What is one piece of advice you would give to a new student?
Do work you are proud of.

What are your plans after graduation?
After I graduate I plan on working to become an architect. Right now I am working at Studio JCI, a Toronto based architecture firm.

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Convocation for #UofTDaniels students was on June 14. This month we are featuring our graduates, including their work, their memories, and their advice for new students. Follow #DanielsGrad18 for more!

Cross-posted from U of T News

By Romi Levine

Toronto continues to grow, with sky-high condo developments, and pricey boutiques and restaurants sprouting up in neighbourhoods across the city. But amidst the revitalization and gentrification are groups of people – low income residents and new immigrants, for example – driven out of their neighbourhoods by rent hikes and expensive shops.

Though understanding and supporting the city’s most vulnerable residents is traditionally in the realm of disciplines like social work and anthropology, Shalice Coutu is bringing social justice to architecture.

Coutu, who is part Métis, graduates Thursday from architectural studies at University of Toronto’s John H. Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape and Design. She is hoping to improve the lives of Canadians through built environments.

“I’m not in it necessarily for the building and the art form of architecture, but more in it to make people's lives better,” says Coutu, who will be continuing her studies at U of T, pursuing a master’s in architecture.

Coutu grew up in Prince Albert, Sask., a city of about 35,000 people. There, she cultivated an understanding of what inequality looks like.

“Coming from a small town in Saskatchewan that definitely has its share of poverty – I'm not oblivious to poverty around me, and I make a point to help those people,” says Coutu, who spent many summers helping her brother run a volleyball camp in rural areas and First Nations reserves in Saskatchewan.

Though she was always interested in architecture, Coutu began her university career in Saskatoon where she studied psychology.

“Our opportunities in Saskatchewan are a little less available,” she says.

But once she found out about the Daniels architecture program, she put the wheels in motion to transfer to U of T.

To continue reading, and for the full article, visit U of T News.

Degree: Honours, Bachelor of Arts, Architectural Studies & Visual Studies

What was the most enjoyable or memorable part of your degree?
Visual studies studios and moments shared with friends.

Image, above: the only thing i know | Out of frustration with the circumstances that have contributed to my unfamiliarity with Chinese writing, I impulsively and obsessively fill a 4-yard length of white synthetic silk, fervently claiming the only thing I know how to write: my name.

What advice you would give to a new student?
Pour your love and effort into the things you make; really try to embrace everything you do.

Image, above: the whirlpool | I am weighed down; the whirlpool will consume me.

How has your understanding of architecture changed over the course of your degree?
I have learned that you can be more than an architect with an architecture degree.

Image, above: us | A depiction of the relationship I have with one of the shadows I have encountered.

What are your plans after graduation? How has this degree prepared you for the future?
I am looking forward to finding design and art-related work. The degree has shown me how flexible my creativity can be.

Image, above: aeh khee | White paper chrysanthemums, used as funerary flowers in Chinese communities, act as stand-ins for the bodies of the Chinese-Indonesians slaughtered during the mass killings of 1965-1966. My work seeks to dignify the hundreds of thousands lost and to serve as a reminder of the importance of reconciliation.

Illustration in slideshow, top:
uggggggggh | A self-portrait on one of my low days.

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Convocation for #UofTDaniels students was on June 14. This month we are featuring our graduates, including their work, their memories, and their advice for new students. Follow #DanielsGrad18 for more!

What was the most enjoyable or memorable part of your degree?
My final thesis project and the experience of collaborating with professors and industry leaders. 

What inspired your thesis topic?
My thesis topic was inspired by my own personal experiences exploring local healthcare settings.

Tell us more about your thesis!
My thesis explored the use of the atrium as an architectural design device to generate a possible therapeutic response within a healthcare setting. I proposed atrium designs that provide: way-finding hierarchy logic, circulation clarity, natural light, and open space for prospect/refuge. The atriums also appeal to both healthcare staff and patient needs. These atriums work in conjunction with courtyards and green spaces to provide occupants with the opportunity for new discoveries. I chose the site of Toronto's Sick Kids Hospital as an exploratory playground from which to create different atrium designs in response to unique needs within a newly proposed and existing historical fabric of the hospital.

What advice would you give to a new student?
Have clear logic for your thesis and maintain it throughout every aspect of the design.

What are your plans after graduation?
I am continuing to design healthcare architecture that would focus on bettering patient experiences.

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Convocation for #UofTDaniels students was on June 14. This month we are featuring our graduates, including their work, their memories, and their advice for new students. Follow #DanielsGrad18 for more!

What was the most memorable part of your Master of Architecture degree?
I think the most enjoyable part of my studies was having a community of classmates and professors whom I was always able to discuss and exchange ideas with. 

What inspired your thesis topic?
My thesis topic was inspired by my frustrations with the way our city is developing, and from the desire to participate constructively in the discussion on how we can change the city we live in.  Defining public spaces in an ever more privatized urban realm is a continued interest of mine, and something I would like to continue to work on in my professional career as well.

Tell us more about your thesis!
My project creates an urban promenade from the ground floor to the roof. Conventional private residence amenities ( gym, party room, and lounge) are converted into public amenities such as co-working spaces, basketball courts, a dance studio, a botanical garden and skating rinks. Seasonal programming such as warming huts in the winter, and market stalls in the summer, transform the podium into an active space all year long. The premise of this research is that without changing the tectonic and infrastructural needs of the tower and podium, spaces can be redesigned with a more public ambition.

What advice would you give to a new student?
Work and travel! If you can, do an internship or semester abroad. 

What are your plans after graduation?
I'd like to get some insight into how other countries in the world are approaching similar architectural and urban problems, and work in an architecture office outside of Canada before maybe one day opening my own office.

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Convocation for #UofTDaniels students was on June 14. This month we are featuring our graduates, including their work, their memories, and their advice for new students. Follow #DanielsGrad18 for more!

Degree: Honours, Bachelor of Arts, Double major in Architectural Studies and Psychology

What was the most enjoyable or memorable part of your degree?
I know parents won't want to hear it, but definitely the late night antics that happen in the studio during an all-nighter (or my personal favourite, the 3/4 nighter). Going through the intensity of studio work is a lot more fun when you're with your closest friends, listening to music, and bouncing ideas off each other. The most memorable moments don't happen in the classroom, they happen unexpectedly in the studio late-night, at Orientation Week or an AVSSU event, or games night with your arch/vis friends. 

Daniels is a unique experience because it is so community and family based. At no point did I feel in competition with my classmates. We all strive to succeed by helping each other. One of my most enjoyable moments was taking part in the Daniels Mentorship Program as a mentor and then the coordinator of the program a year later. Daniels has a unique community where first years aren't afraid to walk up to a fourth year in the studio and ask for help, and I really enjoyed going out of my way to help first years the way the upper year students did for me when I was a new student.

What advice you would give to a new student?
Architecture may be your start goal, but it may not (and probably won't) be your end goal. What I mean is that architecture is a room with many doors (pun intended), and all those doors can take you in so many directions in the world of design. As my classmates and I graduate, I see more and more of them interested in pursuing other fields, such as video game design, set design, graphic design, furniture and lighting design, urban design, and the list goes on. My advice for prospective students would be to stay open minded, you might just fall in love with something else along the way.

Stay involved, and take advantage of all the events / clubs / organizations that are available to you (most of them offer free food!). The most memorable moments don't happen in the classroom, they happen unexpectedly in the studio late-night, at Orientation Week or an AVSSU event, or games night with your arch/vis friends. 

How has your understanding of architecture changed over the course of your degree?
I think architecture surprised me with its differentiation from the ordinary. Architecture in our everyday life seems so simple and functional, yet there are designers out there making arguments for the 'paper architecture', the challenge of the conventional. Daniels challenges us to not only learn and understand this critical thinking, but to also critique it ourselves.

Architecture surprised me with its collaboration with other disciplines. Not just the classic 'engineer and urban planner' collaboration, but a cross-pollination from the realms of business, technology, psychology, and sociology, and even sports and politics. As someone who has a passion for psych, I was, and am, able to bring my own experiences and interests into architecture using a unique perspective from another discipline. 

What are your plans after graduation? How has this degree prepared you for the future?
I am excited to be continuing my studies in architecture at Daniels as a graduate student in the Master of Architecture program. My BA was instrumental in affirming my passion for architecture, helping me gain knowledge and insight into the design, history, and theory of architecture first before pursuing it at the rigorous and fast-paced level of masters.

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Convocation for #UofTDaniels students was on June 14. This month we are featuring our graduates, including their work, their memories, and their advice for new students. Follow #DanielsGrad18 for more!

On Saturday, June 9, Daniels Faculty lecturer James Macgillivray will be introducing a screening of L'Eclisse, as part of TIFF's film series on Modernist Master: Michelangelo Antonioni. 

MacGillivray is a principal and founder of Lee and Macillivray Architecture Studio (LAMAS), and has published widely on film, architecture, and projection. As described in the TIFF listing for the event, he will discuss "how Antonioni frams space, landscape, and Rome's postward architecture in L'Eclisse to construct an environment that is as important as the people within it."

Macgillivray is also a filmmaker. He has written on film, architecture and projection for Scapegoat, ACSA Journal, The Journal of Modern Craft, the Canadian Journal of Film Studies and Tarkovsky, a collection of writings on the work of Russian filmmaker Andrei Tarkovsky. In conjunction with his work at LAMAS he is currently writing a book that delineates the notion of space in the arts of architecture and film. Before founding LAMAS Macgillivray worked as a designer at Steven Holl Architects and as a project manager at Peter Gluck and Partners Architects where his project won the 2013 AIA Housing Award.

The Modernist Master: Michelangelo Antonioni series was co-organized by Camilla Cormanni and Paola Ruggiero, Luce Cinecittà. For more information, visit TIFF's website.

Degree: Honours Bachelor of Arts in Architectural Studies and Visual Studies

What was the most enjoyable or memorable part of your degree?
The most enjoyable part of my undergraduate degree was being able to explore the interdisciplinary intersection between architecture and visual studies and being able to use my education to question the notions of culture and identity in relation to the themes of colonialism, war, and political turmoil.

What advice you would give to a prospective student?
Make sure to take advantage of all the co-curriculars at UofT. Take as many courses outside of your major as you can. Your interests outside your major add a lot of depth in your art and architecture projects. 

How has your understanding of architecture changed over the course of your degree?
Before I started my degree I felt that architectural education was just about making beautiful drawings and endless critiques on form and structure. Once I was here I realized through the instruction of professors like Zeynep Celik, Hans Ibelings, and Jeannie Kim that there’s always a social impact of architecture that manifests itself in the form of occupation, displacement and gentrification which is equally important when we talk about the built environment.

What are your plans after graduation? How has this degree prepared you for the future?
I would like to stay in the interdisciplinary world of arts and architecture as I continue to engage with themes that address the politics of design and how it engages with the society. Being a part of SHIFT magazine has made me realize that the world of publishing is a place where I find a lot of comfort so I’m planning to continue down this path until I’m ready to pursue a master's degree.

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Convocation for #UofTDaniels students is on June 14. This month we are featuring our graduates, including their work, their memories, and their advice for new students. Follow #DanielsGrad18 for more!